Author Description

Whatever opinions one may have on the value or interest of Saints' lives in general, there can be no question as to those translated by Dr. Metcalfe, which have for Scotsmen an interest independent of their ecclesiastical connections. The work embraces nearly the whole of the Latin lives originally published by Pinkerton in 1789, and re-edited in a greatly improved form by the translator in 1889 in two volumes. The only omissions in the present volume are the various offices, of which a translation would be both difficult and of no great interest, and some smaller lives of minor value. It thus includes the lives of six famous Scottish Saints.- Ninian, Columba, Kentigern, Servanus or Serf, Queen Margaret, and Earl Magnus of the Orkneys; and although several of these were already accessible in English versions, it is of great advantage to have them all translated side by side, and by the same hand in so correct and readable a version as Dr. Metcalfe's. While the student will find it impossible to dispense with either the text or the notes of the Latin edition, the translation is sure to be welcomed by the general reader who is interested in the history of Scotland, whether from a social or ecclesiastical point of view. In the former connection Dr. Metcalfe has in his introduction given a useful summary of everything in the Legends which throws light on the stage of civilization reflected in them, in which a great deal of their historic value consists. The Lives, as is natural, differ widely in style and in value. Of particular interest is the Life of Columba by Cuimine, here translated for the first time in its original shape, although it is practically incorporated in the better known work of Adamnan. It is scarcely a life of the saint in the usual sense, but rather a collection of miracles performed by him, and this, indeed, is also the real character of Adamnan's work, a great part of which is made up of what in a more secular person would have been alleged as inst